168 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



WOMAN IN THE HOME. 



MRS. P. D. SAUNDERS, Edgerton, at WOMEN'S SECTION, KENT COUNTY Institute, 



Rockford. 



I believe that the crowning glory of a woman's life is in her home; that there 

 she should be her best not only when the guest is present, not as has been said: 



"We have pleasant worcis for the stranger, 



A smile for the some-time guest; 

 But oft for our own the bitter tone, 



Though we love our own the best." 



Woman as a true helper will always be her best, whether in ithe home or before 

 the public, and in this humanitarian age. when so many men and women are giving 

 their best thoughts to the elevation of humanity; when new methods are being 

 devised and the needs of humanity better understood, can we relegate woman ta 

 the home alone V Can custom longer say, "Thus far shalt thou come and no farther, 

 and here shall thy influence be staid." 



Many noble men give testimony to their mothers' influence making them what 

 they are. Would that influence have been the less if others outside the family circle 

 had received light and strength froan it? I believe the wife and mother should be 

 a source of knowledge, peace and forbearance in the home, one that has faith in, 

 hope for, and charity toward all the family. 



Would contact Avith the Avorld take away any of these attributes? I think not; 

 it would only broaden her thought, quicken her perception and bring her into a 

 closer and truer sympathy and mutual helpfulness with others. 



It is not enough that a few mothers shall convene together in a "Mothers' Con- 

 gress" once a year and get new enthusiasm in their work. There are scores, yes 

 hundreds, of mothers who should be aroused, stimulated, taught, for it is true the 

 mothers teach the children— but who shall teach the mothers? These mothers' 

 meetings will answer this question. Here a new interest will be awakened, a 

 course of study outlined, ideas given to be put into actual practice in the work of 

 child training. We are learning of the needs of parents; we are reaching out for 

 more effectual ways to meet those needs. 



As woman has progressed from obscurity, and the world has learned she is none 

 the less womanly, she finds a need of greater social purity. Where shall we begin 

 to improve upon this condition of societj'— Avith the young or the middle-aged class? 

 When we speak of purity we naturally look to a child to possess it, but are the 

 parents of today giving to their offspring a purity that will outgrow the conditions 

 of today? 



There Avas a time Avhen the popular idea was, to keep the young pure Avas by 

 keeping them in ignorance of evil, but today Ave recognize knoAvledge as the best 

 safe-guard of inexperienced youth. This recognition proves that the old error of 

 silence and false shame has had its day; that aa'c have learned the lesson that ignor- 

 ance is not innocence. 



To instruct the youth as to the consequences of social impurity is the real safe- 

 guard upon Avhieh purity bases its hope for the future health and morality of the 

 people. In the past not a book or paper raised its voice in the interest of social 

 purity, no knowledge for the enlightenment of the young to show them the error 

 of their way. to shoAV them the disastrous results of solitary and social vice. 

 Even the mothers under a sense of delicacy or modesty refrained from impart- 

 ing to their sons and daughters the right knowledge for self protection. Un- 

 fortunaite indeed is the boy or giirl Avho must meet sin in its stronghold un- 

 protected by knoAvledge, and pushed on by inherited tendencies of generations of 

 wrong liA'ing. 



So I plead for the women to attend more mothers' clubs, more institutes. It A\iil 

 fit you for a better appreciation of the responsibilities of motherhood. 



"For a partnership with God is motherhood. 

 What strength, what purity, what wisdom should belong to her 

 Who helps God fashion an immortal soui: 



